a celebration of atua wāhine
The desire to know our ancestors resides deep in our bones, an ancient place.
A portal where the forgotten wait idly in preparation of return, where dreams and things not yet realised begin to form. the desire to know ourselves recalibrates us to this ancient place — he ipukarea.
Celebrating atua wāhine, their stories, wisdom and power reminds us of our inseparability from our tupuna kuia and our unending duty to reclaim our connection to them and thus, ourselves.
Heipūkarea is an offering to facilitate connection and reinstate balance in how we interpret, interact with and understand atua out in te taiao and within us. Heipūkarea is an ode to atua wāhine.
Heipūkarea launched with an event on Friday 20 September, activated by te ahi kōmau, the geysers, ngāwhā and geothermal whenua of Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao & Ngāti Whakaue at Te Whakarewarewa.
The exhibition was a multi-sensory, multi-medium experience of mātauranga, featuring 15 new taonga and works dedicated to atua wāhine and tuakana, pre-existing taonga to support their birth into te ao mārama. 15 new kōawa feeding into the puna mātauranga that has long been flowing, to assist in our recalibration to our Indigenous ways of being.
Learn more about the creatives here.
There are many rivers and streams that flow into the puna mātauranga, the repository of atua wāhine knowledge and wisdom.
Most notably is the work by Dr Aroha Yates-Smith, who in the 1990’s prepared the paths for more kōawa, more research, taonga and wānanga to make their way to the puna.
Her thesis ‘Hine! E Hine! Rediscovering the Feminine in Māori Spirituality’ affirmed the presence of atua wāhine in 1998 and continues to be an invaluable taonga to learn about atua wāhine, today.
puna mātauranga - pool of knowledge | kōawa - stream
wānanga - provocations | taonga - treasure